In addition to the use tax levied pursuant to § 58.1-604 and notwithstanding the provisions of § 58.1-611, a use tax is levied upon the storage or use of all motor vehicles, machines, machinery, tools or other equipment brought, imported or caused to be brought into this Commonwealth for use in constructing, building or repairing any building, highway, street, sidewalk, bridge, culvert, sewer or water system, drainage or dredging system, railway system, reservoir or dam, hydraulic or power plant, transmission line, tower, dock, wharf, excavation, grading, or other improvement or structure, or any part thereof. The rate of tax is three and one-half percent through midnight on July 31, 2004, and four percent beginning on and after August 1, 2004, on all tangible personal property except motor vehicles, which shall be taxed at the rate of three percent; aircraft, which shall be taxed at the rate of two percent; and watercraft, which shall be taxed at the rate of two percent with a maximum tax of $1,000.

Terms Used In Virginia Code 58.1-604.1 v2

  • Beneficiary: A person who is entitled to receive the benefits or proceeds of a will, trust, insurance policy, retirement plan, annuity, or other contract. Source: OCC
  • City: means an independent incorporated community which became a city as provided by law before noon on July 1, 1971, or which has within defined boundaries a population of 5,000 or more and which has become a city as provided by law. See Virginia Code 1-208
  • Evidence: Information presented in testimony or in documents that is used to persuade the fact finder (judge or jury) to decide the case for one side or the other.
  • farm: means any person that obtains at least 51 percent of its annual gross income from agricultural operations and produces the agricultural waste used as feedstock for the waste-to-energy technology, (ii) "agricultural waste" means biomass waste materials capable of decomposition that are produced from the raising of plants and animals during agricultural operations, including animal manures, bedding, plant stalks, hulls, and vegetable matter, and (iii) "waste-to-energy technology" means any technology, including but not limited to a methane digester, that converts agricultural waste into gas, steam, or heat that is used to generate electricity on-site. See Virginia Code 1-222.1
  • Locality: means a county, city, or town as the context may require. See Virginia Code 1-221
  • Personal property: All property that is not real property.
  • Remainder: An interest in property that takes effect in the future at a specified time or after the occurrence of some event, such as the death of a life tenant.
  • State: when applied to a part of the United States, includes any of the 50 states, the District of Columbia, the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, Guam, the Northern Mariana Islands, and the United States Virgin Islands. See Virginia Code 1-245
  • Storage: means any keeping or retention of tangible personal property for use, consumption or distribution in the Commonwealth, or for any purpose other than sale at retail in the regular course of business. See Virginia Code 58.1-602
  • Use: means the exercise of any right or power over tangible personal property incident to the ownership thereof, except that it does not include the sale at retail of that property in the regular course of business. See Virginia Code 58.1-602
  • Use tax: refers to the tax imposed upon the use, consumption, distribution, and storage as defined in this section. See Virginia Code 58.1-602

For purposes of this section, the words “motor vehicle” mean any vehicle which is self-propelled and designed primarily for use upon the highways, any vehicle which is propelled by electric power obtained from trolley wires but not operated upon rails, and any vehicle designed to run upon the highways which is pulled by a self-propelled vehicle, but shall not include any implement of husbandry, farm tractor, road construction or maintenance machinery or equipment, special mobile equipment or any vehicle designed primarily for use in work off the highway.

The tax shall be computed on the basis of such proportion of the original purchase price of such property as the duration of time of use in this Commonwealth bears to the total useful life thereof. For purposes of this section, the word “use” means use, storage, consumption and “stand-by” time occasioned by weather conditions, controversies or other causes. The tax shall be computed upon the basis of the relative time each item of equipment is in this Commonwealth rather than upon the basis of actual use. In the absence of satisfactory evidence as to the period of use intended in this Commonwealth, it will be presumed that such property will remain in this Commonwealth for the remainder of its useful life, which shall be determined in accordance with the experiences and practices of the building and construction trades.

A transaction taxed under § 58.1-604, 58.1-605, 58.1-1402, 58.1-1502, 58.1-1736 or 58.1-2402 shall not also be taxed under this section, nor shall the same transaction be taxed more than once under any section.

1988, c. 379; 2004, Sp. Sess. I, c. 3; 2011, cc. 405, 639.

*This section is set out twice because the 14th enactment of Chapter 766 of the Acts of Assembly of 2013 states: “That the provisions of this act that generate additional revenue through state taxes or fees for transportation (i) throughout the Commonwealth and in Planning District 8 and Planning District 23 or (ii) in any other Planning District that becomes subject to the state taxes or fees imposed solely in Planning Districts pursuant to this act shall expire on December 31 of any year in which the General Assembly appropriates any of such additional revenues for any non-transportation-related purpose or transfers any of such additional revenues that are to be deposited into the Commonwealth Transportation Fund or any subfund thereof pursuant to general law for a non-transportation-related purpose. In the event a local government of any county or city wherein the additional taxes and fees are levied appropriates or allocates any of such additional revenues to a non-transportation purpose, such locality shall not be the direct beneficiary of any of the revenues generated by the taxes or fees in the year immediately succeeding the year in which revenues were appropriated or allocated to a non-transportation purpose.”